1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bogie for railway vehicle and to a process for manufacturing such a bogie.
2. Brief Discussion of the Related Art
It is known to produce a railway vehicle bogie in the form of massive parts made of steel or of welded structures. These massive parts and welded structures are rigid and heavy. In particular, they be must be equipped with suspension and vibration-damping systems.
European Patent Application 0 031 008 discloses a railway vehicle bogie comprising H-shaped cross-pieces made of composite material. These cross-pieces do not allow the assembly of accessory or safety elements such as a motor, a braking system or a control system.
In the case of a bogie made of composite material, it may be envisaged, for fastening the sub-systems mentioned hereinabove, generically called "functional elements" of the bogie, to use metallic inserts fixed with respect to the bogie. Such inserts must be positioned in the bogie as a function of its future use or of the functional elements that it has to support. In other words, no adaptation of the bogie to the functional elements that it supports can be envisaged after these inserts have been positioned. This results in a complex management of the process of concept and manufacture of the bogies of which the structure is fixed as far as the subsequent fixation of functional elements is concerned, from the beginning of manufacture thereof. This lack of modularity is detrimental from the economical, and also from the technical standpoint, as it is detrimental to the interchangeability of the structures of the bogies.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome these drawbacks by proposing a bogie made of composite material and a process of manufacturing such a bogie which make it possible to attain a satisfactory modularity for fixing the functional elements of the bogie.